Fattitude – Speaking Back to Fat Shaming

A new film by Lindsey Averill and Viridiana Lieberman exposes how popular culture fosters fat prejudice.

By Lisa Tedesco

Published: 2014.05.02 12:59 AM

There is a new documentary on the horizon that showcases just how ill informed people are when it comes to fatness and obesity. Two women from Delray Beach, FL have their hearts set on achieving the goal of reaching the public through their film. Lindsey Averill and Viridiana Lieberman have put their trust in a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for Fattitude.

When the Kickstarter first launched, the filmmakers received some frightening harassment. “There was some really upsetting gay-bashing hate speech that was incredibly distressing,” says Lieberman. “However, with the ugliness came and outpouring of support so my filmmaker partner and I have decided to convert the anger and fear we felt in response to our harassment into fuel necessary to make sure this film gets made.”

Averill and Lieberman are making and feature-length independent documentary that exposes how fat hatred permeates through popular culture. The message that is being sent out in today’s society is that fat is bad and in turn the idea of being unkind and unjust to a fat person is acceptable behavior.

They are commenting on the subject that fat people are the subject of discrimination everywhere they look, especially in the media. The filmmakers want to offer a counter argument to the current popular notions of fat hatred to try and make an impact on positive body image and acceptance.

Goals For The Film

This is a film that looks to educate and activate. It is their goal to inform people about the harsh and very real realities of fat shaming and fat hatred. They also hope to inspire people to speak out about the prejudice they face or the mistreatment of others.

The real goal is to make the general public more aware of the prejudice that fat people experience. With this in mind, Averill and Lieberman will be pursuing mainstream distribution for their film and submitting to mainstream film festivals. Their end goal is to get the film finished, out there, and changing the world by the end of 2015.

How You Can Help

There are several different ways to help with the release of this documentary. Spreading the word through email and social media, pass the information along to bloggers and journalists and, the most important way, support the Kickstarter Campaign by donating anything you can to the cause. The funds made through Kickstarter will go directly toward the making of Fattitude.